Forgotten Keep and the Western Lands

A Heroes Burden

18

SEP/14

In the Lonely Valley Village:

As Rolf and Theoren sat in the stable, Rolf resting and Theoren dicing with the stable boy four armed men approached and saw Rolf. They began shouting and demanding their money back saying he had stolen from them and insulted them. When they became aggressive Theoren asked the stable boy to tell them where Rolf had been. He replied that Rolf had just come running in and hid. The men hearing that confirmation drew weapons but Theoren knocked the leader in breast plate and shield with a war hammer aside and he and Rolf ran to the inn. The four armored men followed and demanded that Rolf repay them. They only became more angry as Theoren tried to explain. The bartender yelled for everyone go to outside so Rolf and Theoren did. The group surrounded them and as desperately as Theoren tried to explain they would not listen and attacked. As Theoren defended himself from the leader he suddenly was overcome by magic and froze.

Simeon spotted an old man at the corner of the street who cast the spell on Theoren so he cast Hold Person on him but he only chuckled and ducked behind the building. Simeon gave chase but when he rounded the building the old man was nowhere to be seen. Scanning the street Simeon saw two women who looked the same and when he yelled if they knew each other they looked at each other surprised. Noticing that one looked more surprised than the other Simeon brought a moonbeam down onto the less surprised one. It screamed in pain and its form shifted from a woman to a strange looking humanoid creature without any distinctive features except for being tall and lanky with claws.

Seeing Theoren unable to defend himself Rolf leaped in front of him and was attacked by all four men. Gannic tried to help but Rolf suffered numerous injuries. Gannic healed Rolf but again he was struck by the four men. Finally Gannic pushed into the group trying to help shield Rolf. Rolf barely standing struck the dark haired leader with two ax blows staggering him but then one of the other men crashed his ax into Rolfs back collapsing him to the ground. Theoren finally managed to break free from the spell that hold him and slashed the war hammer wielding leader and he fell to the ground unconscious. The rest of the men continued the attack as Gannic brought Rolf back to consciousness with magic. Rolf growled and picked himself up and attacked sticking another blow before being dropped again. However Gannic and Theoren managed to injure the men several times and with Rolf on the ground they saw a chance to escape and ran down the street.

The creature rushed out of the moonbeam towards Simeon and clawed him across the arm. As Simeon drew his battle ax an older man standing in the doorway of the inn suddenly changed into another of the strange creatures and ripped into Simeon with its claws. Simeon collapsed to the ground bleeding and unconscious from the pain. As the creatures stood over Simeon a tiger rushed around the corner and pounced onto one of the creatures clawing it and knocking it to the ground. Both creatures recovered and started to move away from the tiger changing into the form of Amarae and duplicating themselves. Gannic healed Simeon as Amarae the tiger chased down herself clawing one of them again. Simeon brought back to consciousness picked himself up and cast another moonbeam one a pair of Amaraes. They screamed in pain and changed back into their natural form. Simeon and the Amarae the tiger chased the creatures several blocks before giving up and returning to the Lonely Valley Inn.

Gannic again healed Rolf and spared the dark haired human leader. Theoren and Rolf picked him up and lead him into the inn with the rest of the party. There they sat him down with a drink and tried to explain what had happened. The bartender had seen the creature surprise Simeon and was talking about it as well.